Return Migration and Self-Employment: Evidence from Mexican Migrants

Author(s):  
Sandra Orozco-Aleman ◽  
Heriberto Gonzalez-Lozano
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-194
Author(s):  
Alin Croitoru

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the diversity of return migration by analysing the different types of small-scale entrepreneurship among returnees. Data from an original survey conducted among Romanian returnees and in-depth interviews with returnees in entrepreneurship are combined to reveal distinct profiles of returnee entrepreneurs and to illustrate their specific ways of thinking about entrepreneurship and migration. Currently, Romania is one of the most fertile settings to research intra-European return migration due to its important flows of temporary international migrants. The paper highlights that there are major differences between business owners and self-employed returnees in terms of entrepreneurship. Returnees who are business owners are those who benefited significantly more from migration than non-entrepreneur returnees—in terms of economic savings, human capital accumulation, and enhancement of their stocks of social capital; while returnees in self-employment reveal no significant differences for these migration outcomes compared to non-entrepreneur returnees. The distinction between the two groups of entrepreneurs has certain implications for origin states’ policies oriented towards stimulating return migration through programmes oriented towards returnees’ entrepreneurship. Keywords: Return Migration; Intra-European Migration; Entrepreneurship; Self-Employment; Multi-Method Social Research. „„„„ Articolul contribuie la literatura dedicată diversității migrației de revenire prin analiza unor tipuri diferite de antreprenoriat în rândul migranților reîntorși în țara de origine. Pentru a documenta profilurile specifice ale migranților care sunt antreprenori după revenire, sunt combinate date culese printr-un sondaj cu migranți reveniți în România și interviuri de profunzime cu migranți care au statutul de antreprenori după revenirea din străinătate. În prezent, România reprezintă unul dintre contextele excelente pentru cercetarea migrației de revenire datorită fluxurilor importante de migranți temporari internaționali. Lucrarea subliniază o serie de diferențe majore între migranții reveniți care au deschis mici afaceri și cei care lucrează pe cont propriu (de exemplu, sub formă de persoană fizică autorizată). Pe de o parte, migranții reveniți care dețin mici afaceri sunt cei care au beneficiat semnificativ mai mult din experiența de migrație comparativ cu reveniții non-antreprenori, în termeni de bani economisiți din migrație, acumulare de capital uman în străinătate și reconfigurarea capitalului social. Pe de altă parte, compararea profilurilor celor care lucrează pe cont propriu cu non-antreprenorii nu arată diferențe semnificative între cele două categorii în termeni de resurse acumulate prin experiența de migrație. Distincția dintre cele două tipuri de antreprenori poate avea implicații pentru politicile statelor de origine orientate către stimularea migrației de revenire prin programe centrate spre antreprenoriatul migranților reveniți. Cuvinte-cheie: migrație de revenire; migrație intra-europeană; antreprenoriat; angajare pe cont propriu; cercetare multi-metodă.


Stealing Time ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Alexis M. Silver ◽  
Melissa A. Manzanares ◽  
Liron Goldring

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Cheong ◽  
Douglas S. Massey

Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we evaluate the effects of documented and undocumented migration on the health of Mexican adults. Results suggest that documented and undocumented migrants are positively selected with respect to health in migrating to the United States and health status does not strongly predict selection into return migration back to Mexico. Among returned migrants, health deteriorates as the number of trips to the United States increases, with undocumented migrants experiencing an extra health penalty. While there is no continued decline on return to Mexico for undocumented migrants, they fare worse than returned documented migrants.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-636
Author(s):  
Merita Zulfiu Alili ◽  
Nick Adnett ◽  
Teuta Veseli-Kurtishi

Return migration may be associated with the addition of new human capital, entrepreneurial skills and investment funds in the country of origin. The size of these stimuli will likely depend upon the characteristics of the return migrants and the motivation for their return. This paper presents an analysis of the determinants of the probability of Albanian return migrants being in employment. This study examines the role of the socio-demographic characteristics of returning migrants; their experience while abroad and the motivations for their return. The results suggest that being male, holding a university degree, being unemployed before returning and receiving training while abroad increase the probability of finding a job after return. The higher probability of returnees being in employment or self-employment indicates that the overall benefits to the economy of return migrants may be much larger than previously thought. Facilitating or accelerating the social integration and employability of return migrants to Albania could encourage more emigrants to return and provide a further boost to its economy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 135-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Y. Gutiérrez Vázquez

Mexico-U.S. migration has dramatically changed in the past three decades: the pronounced increasing flow of the 1990s stalled in the 2000s and a zero net migration rate was officially reported in 2010. Deportations and economic crisis have been discussed as the underlying reasons of this change. In the context of involuntary movements, I evaluate the labor market incorporation of return migrants with respect to non-movers and internal migrants in Mexico between 2000 and 2010. Using the Mexican Census samples, I found that the reduction on return migrants’ earnings is associated to changes in both, the characteristics of returnees and in the pay rates. Specifically, changes in their occupations and higher participation in informal economy are the most important differences associated to the earnings loss of return migrants. These findings suggest that return migration in involuntary contexts restrict resources that individuals use to incorporate in the job market upon returning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 778-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ionela Vlase ◽  
Alin Croitoru

Challenging a biased view towards self-employed returnees as neoliberal selves, as the normalized approach of the migration–development nexus tends to depict them, this article builds an alternative conceptual framework to unpack the variegated experiences of migrant returnees’ self-employment trajectories in post-socialist Romania. The authors argue that the overemphasis on the benefits of return migration for origin countries through the skewed focus on the migrants’ accrual of human and financial capital and their ostensible entrepreneurial orientation has resulted in disregarding more influential biographical and cultural aspects. Life story interviews with middle-aged participants reveal the complex subjectivities that are co-produced by the habitus formed during communism – as children born and raised within working-class families – neoliberalism’s rise during the post-socialist transition, and migration, which altered the pursuit of their life goals. The article documents three distinct self-employment pathways among the interviewed return migrants, suggesting that the subjectivities of the self-employed are not uniformly confined to neoliberal self-understandings.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilman Brück ◽  
Clotilde Mahe ◽  
Wim Naudé

Author(s):  
Aresha M. Martinez-Cardoso ◽  
Arline T. Geronimus

While migration plays a key role in shaping the health of Mexican migrants in the US and those in Mexico, contemporary Mexican migration trends may challenge the health selection and return migration hypotheses, two prevailing assumptions of how migration shapes health. Using data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (2002; 2005), we tested these two hypotheses by comparing the cardiometabolic health profiles of (1) Mexico–US future migrants and nonmigrants and (2) Mexico–US return migrants and nonmigrants. First, we found limited evidence for health selection: the cardiometabolic health of Mexico–US future migrants was not measurably better than the health of their compatriots who did not migrate, although migrants differed demographically from nonmigrants. However, return migrants had higher levels of adiposity compared to those who stayed in Mexico throughout their lives; time spent in the US was also associated with obesity and elevated waist circumference. Differences in physical activity and smoking behavior did not mediate these associations. Our findings suggest positive health selection might not drive the favorable health profiles among recent cohorts of Mexican immigrants in the US. However, the adverse health of return migrants with respect to that of nonmigrants underscores the importance of considering the lived experience of Mexican migrants in the US as an important determinant of their health.


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